Socialism is alive and well, and I'm not simply talking about the socialistic charade of Hugo Chavez.

Instead, I'm talking about the employee or subcontracted members of your group who, even though they are being paid every penny due to them pursuant to their employment agreement or subcontract, have the misguided mindset that "there is money missing" or that the partners are "stealing money," as if any purportedly "missing" or "stolen" money would, in any event, be theirs.

Perhaps this is simply a symptom of a larger societal problem: the cancer of social justice which is simply a pig-in-a-skirt term for an entitlement attitude magnified to the level of socially acceptable theft.

But there are other contributing factors totally within the control of the group and its leaders:

• Strategy: Groups often have no actual business strategy which in many cases fosters a collegial approach to the business of medicine. We're all in this together morphs into we're all in business together. If so, where's my money?

• Poorly documented relationships: The world in which the difference between a $2,000 employment agreement and a $15,000 one is often millions in damages to your partners. Oops, you mean subcontractors. Have you created a de facto partnership?

• Actions: Even if the agreement between the group and its employed or subcontracted physicians is properly structured and documented, it doesn't help if its not signed or if the group takes action, or its leaders make statements, contrary to its provisions. These gaffes provide the toe holds for disgruntled physicians to use when climbing into your bank account.

The impact of this thinking, whether resulting simply from the subcontractors misguided mindset or fostered by errors on the part of the group, is cancer-like. If allowed to grow, it will, at best, cause dissension within the ranks. At worst, it will result in employees and subcontractors running off to hospital administration to complain about their "unfair" treatment, the likely result of which will be their use by the administrator as weapons to destabilize your group's leadership structure.

Yes, to use another socialist analogy, this time from the other side of the ideological coin, your employees and subcontractors will be used as useful idiots to destroy your leadership and, in the long run, to destroy the idiots themselves.

If your patient had cancer it would be removed. If your group has cancer. . . 

*COMPLIMENTARY*

Not Much is Fair About Fair Market Value

The fair market valuation process is often unfair, blind to value and generally ignores the true market.
 

And, that's not the worst part.

Now learn about its negative impact on physician compensation, group stipends and the ability to do real world deals.